Hexo’s writedown likely a bad sign for industry

Quebec licensed producer Hexo Corp. has been forced to write down the value of its inventory of cannabis trim by $2.4 million, another potential warning sign for an industry struggling with oversupply and large producer stockpiles.

Hexo cited “new and available third-party information” that resulted in a price adjustment of the fair market value for trim for the decision, which was disclosed as it restated its financial statements for the period ending Oct. 31, 2019.

Unlike the cannabis flower, which contains high levels of THC, trim is essentially a byproduct of cultivation that consists of the leaves and stems that have trace-levels of THC. While it cannot be rolled into a joint, trim can be combined with dried flower to extract marijuana oil, giving it some value to producers. “The perfect analogy for flower versus trim, is steak versus sausages. Trim is just the byproduct — all the stuff that doesn’t look good but can still be used, just like parts of a cow you might use to turn into sausages or burgers,” said Brayden Sutton, chairman of Nevada-based cannabis company 1933 Industries Inc., and the former executive vice-president of Aurora Cannabis Inc.

Sutton says in general, the ratio of THC in flower to that of trim is 20 to 1 (though that varies by strain), meaning that it would take 20 times more trim in weight to extract what you would get from flower.

“Trim is useful to companies, and it’s a whole other market. You can take a big garbage bag full of weed trim, put it into an extractor and pull the essential oil out of it,” he said.

But there could be too much pot trim on the Canadian market. Health Canada data shows that as of September 2019, there was 316,000 kilograms of dried cannabis inventory, far surpassing domestic sales figures. It is, however, unclear, how much of that inventory is trim versus flower.

“A lot of producers were accumulating this byproduct for cannabis 2.0. There’s so much of it. I think trim will decline in value faster than flower, and it will be the first subject to impairment,” believes Andrew Uddell, managing director of The Cannalysts, an independent cannabis research firm. “If you’re storing tons of low-value products, it might not make sense to store them at all.”

Licensed producers value all parts of the plant as “biological assets,” and assess their fair value based on what they think the future per gram price might be. As prices start declining, companies may have to take writedowns on that fair value. If producers are holding more cannabis trim than flower, and trim prices decline more quickly, the impairment issue could be compounded.

Hexo’s writedown comes in addition to $26 million of inventory impairments and sales provisions disclosed in its most recent earnings. It has seen its revenue slip and cash balance erode over the last six months.